The saga begins at the Golden Triangle

The first week in India seemed to be the most exciting yet stressful for me. For those who know me well, know that I do not respond well to long journeys, especially by road, air or rail and anxiety was heightened even more so as I was in India without anyone I knew.

After our epic 9 hour flight to Delhi, the 7 hour journey on a non-AC (I obviously had high hopes) bus seemed to last forever. By this time I did not care what I looked like, how I smelt or even how I spoke to the 44 other strangers I was due to spend 2 and half months with. It had reached a point when I thought, can I really hack this. I was premature in my thoughts as the worst journey was yet to come. After a nights rest in Agra and a very early morning rise, we visited the epic Taj Mahal, where I asked for a blessing so that my love will flourish (and if something happened to me, Dhru will build a great monument as grand in honour of me). Being my second visit to the Taj Mahal, I thought I wouldn’t be fazed by the beauty of this creation; however I was wrong as I was in complete awe of it. The early morning sunrise and light hitting the side of the dome, created an almost blinding effect which my photos could not even credit.

Our short stay in Agra was followed by a 6 hour bus journey to Jaipur. The intensity of the heat here was disgusting as the journey resulted in most of us being drenched in sweat. We arrived in Jaipur, greeted by our host family with garlands of flowers and tikkas (red dot on the forehead). Mrs Anuradha Mittal, a Hindi teacher, her husband, a physics teacher and their 2 sons who lived in a 4 storey house, with a classroom in the basement. As well as being a teacher, Mr Mittal has also written various physics books and is apparently renowned in the physics world. Our family were incredibly hospitable, accommodating and incredibly knowledgeable. Our three day orientation we were due to have in Jaipur consisted of many ‘death by powerpoint’ presentations, a shopping trip, a visit to the infamous Raj Mandir (local cinema hall to watch a movie) and a visit to the Amber Fort , including an elephant ride. Out of all of these, the visit to the Amber Fort and the elephant ride were the most exciting for me. The Amber Fort was huge and home to a maharaja who had 12 wives and loved to party. The elephants that took us to the top of the fort were decorated in many different coloured powders and were beautiful. My elephant was called Laxmi and I managed to get a photo with me on an elephant with my threadless tshirt on! My best experience so far and my worst were due to happen on the same day. Our 18 hour train journey to take us to the Punjab had been delayed for 6 hours. After these 6 hours passed, we made our way to the train station, as expected it was busy with many beggars around and people staring which I had become quite used to by then. However, I did not expect someone to come and talk to me about coming to England. This teacher explained how he had all the money to get there but getting a visa seemed to be the most difficult. I didn’t really understand what he wanted me to do about it until he asked for my phone number at which point I called over one of the project supervisors and he asked him to leave.

After sometime, we boarded the train. I again had high hopes that the British government may have been nice enough and paid for us to be in 1st class, I was wrong yet again, we were slumming it with the cockroaches in a sleeper carriage. After numerous rotations and moving around we managed to somehow get comfortable and spent the journey amusing ourselves with various games, books and music. When it did get light, the views on the train were beautiful. The fresh green rice fields growing seemed a long way from the dry heat of Jaipur. Our late morning arrival in Chakki Bank (Punjab), yet again dirty and hungry (a common state I had found myself in after only being in the county for four days) was again followed by a 4 hour bus journey on cliff edges, I hadn’t been sick yet and I wasn’t planning to then, thanks to my trustee acupressure bands (I love you mum). We had finally reached our destination, to a 4 storey white washed house, situated in a village called Bandla with a stream running alongside it. The snow topped Himalayan mountain views would be my first and probably last memory of this place.

27 days left

Finally, I have managed to update this blog as I now have my ‘lappy-tappy’ courtesy of the boyfriend. It will be backtracked at a later date as so much as been going on, not necessary good.
We are now entering our 6th week or as the 4F slags (our room crew) would say 27 days left on the countdown calendar. This week we are due to start rehearsing the street play. This was due to start in our 3rd week, however as there has been a lot of drama created in our house itself, it had been postponed and even talk of it being cancelled, but united; we expressed our commitment to do it even with the time constraints. The purpose of the play is to increase awareness of environmental issues to the community. As the previous group performed so well in their play and in Hindi, there are high expectations for us.

A few weeks ago the local community were keeping their distance from us as there had been trouble in our camp (a rape case-local taxi driver and a stupid drunk volunteer) but interaction has somewhat increased in the last week. Our school, including us were invited to a traditional Pahari (the caste) wedding. This was unlike any Indian wedding I have ever attended as the bride wasn’t actually present. We have also been invited to another community function by one of the girls in our women’s group (will keep you posted on this one). Also effort has been made at school to interact with our teachers to find out more about the children and the community. It has also been noticed that methods used by the head teacher to discipline children are disturbing and unnerving; however we are yet to bring this up in conversation. It is difficult for us to judge her on this, as this is something which is culturally embedded, however a recent amendment to an education bill has made this sort of discipline illegal, however habits take a lot longer to change.
The progress the children are making is evident but time isn’t on our side as school closes for the monsoon season next week for a month. What has concerned us is that the children struggle to read basic Hindi, therefore we find ourselves teaching them concepts such as days of the week in both Hindi and in English (which may not be so bad).

We have also pledged to paint and decorate our school during the Monsoon season. Initially our plans for this were rejected as this was not our ‘special project’ but we said we fund this ourselves. We are determined to do this as we know that it will encourage the children to learn and the beautification we do, will be education orientated. At least we will leave a physical difference on our school.

In our camp, plenty has been happening. Most recently we have had a magnificent and very well planned ‘Stars in their Eyes Show’ which showcased many people’s voices as well as the ability to use eye liner as a colouring pencil (a very drunk Amy Winehouse was the winner), followed by a party (usual Friday night antics). I’m sure there will be many to follow as we do have 4 weeks left!

The day before!

I am all packed up and ready to go, but have blatantly forgotten something important even after triple checking all my bags. My backpack ways far too much for me to carry and my hand luggage is full to the brim. I am hoping someone will help me out on the other side and from my experience they will, especially when they know that we have the British pound in my back pocket.

What will I miss most about home:
Mum, Dad, Munch, Dil, Dhru, Martina, Zareen and many other people, food (non-veg), Soca, dinners out, chilling in the park and the booze!

What am I looking forward to most:
The clean air in the mountains, working with the children, seeing the Taj Mahal again, and experiencing life in India, on my own, without the comforts and support that I have been used to previously when I have visited India. As many of you know, it will be a challenge for me but I will get through it and hopefully become a better person out of it.

There are plenty of things which I am not looking forward to but I won't dwell on that as I will relay all that happens when I am over there. The best thing for me to do is to go there without any expectation and I will be fine.

20th May- 6 days before India

I am off in less than 6 days and yet still feel extremely overwhelmed by how much I have to do.

Get waterproofs, walking shoes, backpack, sleeping bag, string, change money, pack and most importantly see friends and family.

The point of this trip is for me to go to India and volunteer completely selflessly, yet the week before I leave I find myself being the most selfish I have ever been before. I want the people I care about most to miss me as I will miss them (and I want to know that).

This year has been full of extremes and this trip will be no different. I look forward to letting you lovely people know about my experiences and stories.